With Apple causing a storm with its new in-app purchasing rules it’s not just publishers that are dismayed over the news, as parents are raising questions about how in-app payments – aimed at kids – are handled.

A report by the Washington Post discovered that children were racking up large bills from free games using the in-app purchase facility. One of the games in question was Dolphin Play which is a game that Brent Goldberg, a software engineer in Riverside, California thought was suitable for his two children. He downloaded it and thought nothing more of the game until he discovered that his children had spent $52 buying coins from the in-app payment system.

Another women also found that her daughter had racked up a huge bill of $1,400 by making in app-purchases from what was thought to be a harmless game called Smurfs’ Village.

Even though there are parental controls currently in place to prevent cases like this from happening, because Mr Goldberg and the aforementioned woman had already entered their iTunes passwords they were unaware that there is a 15-minute loop hole where the password remains active for this period. This is one of the main reasons why the parents are trying to force Apple to change its policy on this matter.

However, as Apple already have an option in place (held deep inside the settings menu) to restrict all in-app purchases from happening, technically it’s covered in this regard. Besides, even if Apple do decide to tailor the restriction option to make life easier, would they want to remove the 15-minute loop hole completely?

The App store is renowned for its ease of use and if they make things too complicated this could put off potential buyers. With games like the above Smurfs’ Village and Tap Zoo, by San Francisco-based Pocket Gems, ranking as the highest-grossing apps on iPods, iPhones and iPads, Apple would not want to miss out on its 30% cut.

Reader Comments

Jim Chu

Just one more case of corporate greed. There should be a requirement that the consumer needs to provide explicit permission each time there are any charges over the regular monthly charge. With this kind of policy, there would be no $10,000 phone bills because you couldn’t go over your minutes – the company cuts you off until you call them back and say you’re authorizing overages. In the case of a family plan package, that approval should come from the primary account holder’s phone. Then the kids can’t buy anything without Mom or Dad’s say-so.